About Mary Wollstonecraft, author of the first book on feminism, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", Elizabeth Robins Pennel writes in her prefatory note that "Twice in her misery did she seek to kill herself; the world was too cruel. But both times she was saved, sorely against her will. I know nothing so tragic in fiction as her second attempt. She had gone to Battersea Bridge, intending to leap into the Thames. As there were too many people, she hired a boat & rowed to Putney. It was a wet day & she walked on the bridge so that her clothes, drenched with rain, might make her sink more rapidly. She jumped but was rescued & forced to face her life & all its bitterness." She died at the age of 38, 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, who became famous as Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein."
Virginia Woolf, author of "A Room of One's Own", a seminal feminist text, was troubled by mental illness (bipolar disorder). She was institutionalised several times & attempted suicide at least twice. When 59, she drowned herself in the river Ouse at Lewes.
Kate Millet, was the author of "Sexual Politics" which earned her a doctorate from Columbia University. She was also twice involuntarily institutionalised for bipolar disorder. Her involvement with psychiatry caused her to attempt suicide several times. However, she died from cardiac arrest 8 days before her 83rd birthday.
Betty Friedan, author of "Feminine Mystique", though sane, had frequent physical altercations with her husband for which she had received black eyes.
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